About this collection

The Philadelphia Commercial Museum (PCM) was a museum located in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Its collections were focused on worldwide manufacturing and trade, with an emphasis on domestic and foreign commerce relations. The museum operated from 1897 to 1994 and was also known as the Philadelphia Museums and the Philadelphia Civic Center Museum. Curatorial areas of note include extensive African, Asian, and South American collections, as well as a large ship model collection.

PCM also served as a location for conventions and trade shows through the 1990s; it was affiliated with the Port of History Museum in Philadelphia. The bulk of the Philadelphia Commercial Museum records (Accession 2469) material dates from the 1910s to the 1990s. This collection includes photographs, diagrams, object inventories, financial ledgers, board minutes, advertisements, brochures, and trade publications.

The collection would be useful to researchers interested in Philadelphia museums and the history of trade and commerce. The collection has not been digitized in it's entirety.

Image: School classes & education programs, class from Temple University, 1924